Departmental Activities. 119 



POTCHEFSTROOM, TRANSVAAL. 



The School. — The school closed on the 14th December. Out of 

 the 30 feecond-year fetudents, 28 secured the diploma, and among 

 these 20 secured one or more distinctions. The two failed by a small 

 margin only, and were g-iven the choice of re-examination. Twenty- 

 nine of the 31 first-year students passed, and of the 6 one-year 

 students only one failed in one subject. Almost all the successful 

 candidates are already engaged to take up farming for themselves or 

 with others as managers, foremen, and assistants in agricultural 

 propositions. 



Live Stock. — The continued drought is beginning to tell on crops 

 and stock. The amount of rain that fell during the month amounted 

 to only 1.68. The grazing is getting very poor and additional feed- 

 ing- with hay and other farm foods is given to dairy heifers and cows 

 with calf at foot. 



It should be a farmer's greatest care to save valuable young stock 

 during such periods ; any stunting of their development now is a 

 permanent setback; a little lucerne hay, silage, or other farm-grown 

 feeds goes a long way in assisting growth. On no account should 

 dairy heifers be allowed to fall into poor condition. Under present 

 condition's the price of milk is increased and dairy calves are given 

 gruels as substitute for the butter fat lacking in skim milk. 



Calf-feeding experiments are now being conducted with two 

 different gruels; No. 1, 2 parts pollards, 1 part linseed; No. 2, 2 

 parts mealie meal, 2 parts oatmeal, 1 part linseed meal. 



The calves run on pasture in the day time and are given a feed of 

 dry lucerne hay in the evenings. In addition to the gruel they 

 receive a ration of dry meal, consisting of 3 parts mealie meal, 3 

 parts oatmeal, 1 part bran. Approximately f lb. of meal per 100 lb. 

 live weight is fed. 



The calves are given portions of the gruels above mentioned with 

 skim milk according to age, and seem to thrive well. They lose in 

 body fat, but have sufficient material in their rations (gruel and 

 skim milk, dry meal, and hay) to grow all the bone and muscle 

 necessary for proper development. 



The grading experiment in Sussex and Hereford cattle has also 

 been started. It is proposed to grade all culled cows with bulls of 

 these breeds and to study very carefully each grade of successive 

 generations. 



In spite of the drought, the stock keeps remarkably well owing 

 to the proper use of grazing paddockis, pastures, and all kinds of 

 feeds available on the farm. 



Stock intended for show purposes are taken in hand now. The 

 pastures are too poor to improve their condition much or even to 

 keep them going. A good feed, conisisting mostly of good hay 

 (lucerne, teff, etc.), some succulents (silage, green lucerne, etc.), and 

 a fair grain ration, consisting mostly of mealie meal, will get them 

 on to stall-feeding the first week. 



Crops. — Wheat and oat crops have been harvested. Some 

 varieties suffered heavily from birds, but on the whole the yields are 

 very satisfactory. A fair amount of seed of different varieties i|6 



